Philadelphians were shocked, just shocked, to discover that tickets were being fixed at Traffic Court, while some Supreme Court justices reportedly seemed more upset that the report was released than troubled by its contents.

*Captain Renault opens up a fresh bottle of wine as Ric Romero makes popcorn in anticipation*

EvilEgg:Is anyone actually surprised by this? If you are a cop or a judge you don't pay fines.

Or you're a local attorney.Or you work at a hospital (usually.)Or you work for a local Fire Department.Or you work for a local ambulance company.Or you work for the military/are in the military.

People aren't supposed to do it, the local fire and PD have policies in place explicitly prohibiting it. But I don't know of anyone who's been fired for using their credentials to get out of one, and it gets done.

If you get pulled over by THP, on the other hand, forget getting out of it. You can either drive to the closest State courtroom to appeal it, or pay your 150-300 dollar fine.

It's shameful and needs to be put to a stop. You're a role model, and expected to follow the very laws that you uphold. The problem is that speeding tickets are a discretionary issue - a cop DOES NOT have to issue you one even if they catch you red handed doing it. So they can skirt the law by saying they just felt a warning was warranted.

there does seem to be a lot of problems with what we laughingly call our 'justice system' here in Pennsylvania.

I figure that most state's judges hope their affairs never see the light of day.

I try to avoid having to do anything with the legal system in this state. I just figure its safer to assume they're all corrupt and/or just looking the other way and just avoid attracting their interest.

Weaver95:I've always kinda assumed that every traffic court is more or less equally corrupt. if you know someone, you walk. if you're 'little people' you pay through the nose.

The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

NO-FARKING-BODY

actually drives 55 MPH on the expressway. Have an independent agency do speed tests (like the ones you run over, not obvious radar spots that people might think are speed traps), find the 5th percentile (ie: speed that less than 5% drive), and make THAT the speed limit.

If you need the taxes from tickets, then just charge everybody, not the people who are unlucky to "win" the Speed Trap Lottery. You can't possibly believe that something that 100% of the country does is supposed to be illegal.

SineSwiper:The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

Actually, in the case of Philly, the problem is increasingly restricted parking. In my neighborhood, street by street, block by block, permit parking is being adopted. The thing about permit parking in Philly is that it's a bit harder for a non-home owner, or a renter to get a permit for their block. What happens is that while people wait for their permits to be processed, they rack up ticket after ticket trying to park reasonably close to their home. In order to get a permit, you have to pay every outstanding ticket you have with the city. In effect, PPA cars circle neighborhoods every hour and a half or so, ticketing merilly down the way. They're pretty much farming renters.

BronyMedic:Or you're a local attorney.Or you work at a hospital (usually.)Or you work for a local Fire Department.Or you work for a local ambulance company.Or you work for the military/are in the military.

SineSwiper:actually drives 55 MPH on the expressway. Have an independent agency do speed tests (like the ones you run over, not obvious radar spots that people might think are speed traps), find the 5th percentile (ie: speed that less than 5% drive), and make THAT the speed limit.

If you do that, we'll be driving 30 miles per hour because Grandma Norma forgot to take her medicine this morning.

PonceAlyosha:SineSwiper: The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

Actually, in the case of Philly, the problem is increasingly restricted parking. In my neighborhood, street by street, block by block, permit parking is being adopted. The thing about permit parking in Philly is that it's a bit harder for a non-home owner, or a renter to get a permit for their block. What happens is that while people wait for their permits to be processed, they rack up ticket after ticket trying to park reasonably close to their home. In order to get a permit, you have to pay every outstanding ticket you have with the city. In effect, PPA cars circle neighborhoods every hour and a half or so, ticketing merilly down the way. They're pretty much farming renters.

Wow, if I were a trial lawyer, I would be all over that like stink on shiat. There's a legal term for that: Racketeering. If nothing else, you could get a good class action lawsuit going.

BronyMedic:If you do that, we'll be driving 30 miles per hour because Grandma Norma forgot to take her medicine this morning.

No, I mean the TOP speed that less than 5% of the people drive. If you were to sort it by speed, I guess it would be the 95th percentile. (Wasn't sure which term would be more confusing, but I guess I needed to explain myself, anyway.)

SineSwiper:PonceAlyosha: SineSwiper: The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

Actually, in the case of Philly, the problem is increasingly restricted parking. In my neighborhood, street by street, block by block, permit parking is being adopted. The thing about permit parking in Philly is that it's a bit harder for a non-home owner, or a renter to get a permit for their block. What happens is that while people wait for their permits to be processed, they rack up ticket after ticket trying to park reasonably close to their home. In order to get a permit, you have to pay every outstanding ticket you have with the city. In effect, PPA cars circle neighborhoods every hour and a half or so, ticketing merilly down the way. They're pretty much farming renters.

Wow, if I were a trial lawyer, I would be all over that like stink on shiat. There's a legal term for that: Racketeering. If nothing else, you could get a good class action lawsuit going.

in philly? assuming you could actually get a court date, I wouldn't put it past it for someone in city government to come by and 'persuade' you to drop your lawsuit by nailing your cat to the front door of your office.

SineSwiper:PonceAlyosha: SineSwiper: The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

Actually, in the case of Philly, the problem is increasingly restricted parking. In my neighborhood, street by street, block by block, permit parking is being adopted. The thing about permit parking in Philly is that it's a bit harder for a non-home owner, or a renter to get a permit for their block. What happens is that while people wait for their permits to be processed, they rack up ticket after ticket trying to park reasonably close to their home. In order to get a permit, you have to pay every outstanding ticket you have with the city. In effect, PPA cars circle neighborhoods every hour and a half or so, ticketing merilly down the way. They're pretty much farming renters.

Wow, if I were a trial lawyer, I would be all over that like stink on shiat. There's a legal term for that: Racketeering. If nothing else, you could get a good class action lawsuit going.

quatchi:Philadelphians were shocked, just shocked, to discover that tickets were being fixed at Traffic Court, while some Supreme Court justices reportedly seemed more upset that the report was released than troubled by its contents.

*Captain Renault opens up a fresh bottle of wine as Ric Romero makes popcorn in anticipation*

Weaver95:SineSwiper: PonceAlyosha: SineSwiper: The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

Actually, in the case of Philly, the problem is increasingly restricted parking. In my neighborhood, street by street, block by block, permit parking is being adopted. The thing about permit parking in Philly is that it's a bit harder for a non-home owner, or a renter to get a permit for their block. What happens is that while people wait for their permits to be processed, they rack up ticket after ticket trying to park reasonably close to their home. In order to get a permit, you have to pay every outstanding ticket you have with the city. In effect, PPA cars circle neighborhoods every hour and a half or so, ticketing merilly down the way. They're pretty much farming renters.

Wow, if I were a trial lawyer, I would be all over that like stink on shiat. There's a legal term for that: Racketeering. If nothing else, you could get a good class action lawsuit going.

in philly? assuming you could actually get a court date, I wouldn't put it past it for someone in city government to come by and 'persuade' you to drop your lawsuit by nailing your cat to the front door of your office.

The ACLU cares about crucified cats?

/when the police can raid ACLU offices and the courts uphold it, I'll be heading to Canada

Weaver95:SineSwiper: PonceAlyosha: SineSwiper: The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

Actually, in the case of Philly, the problem is increasingly restricted parking. In my neighborhood, street by street, block by block, permit parking is being adopted. The thing about permit parking in Philly is that it's a bit harder for a non-home owner, or a renter to get a permit for their block. What happens is that while people wait for their permits to be processed, they rack up ticket after ticket trying to park reasonably close to their home. In order to get a permit, you have to pay every outstanding ticket you have with the city. In effect, PPA cars circle neighborhoods every hour and a half or so, ticketing merilly down the way. They're pretty much farming renters.

Wow, if I were a trial lawyer, I would be all over that like stink on shiat. There's a legal term for that: Racketeering. If nothing else, you could get a good class action lawsuit going.

in philly? assuming you could actually get a court date, I wouldn't put it past it for someone in city government to come by and 'persuade' you to drop your lawsuit by nailing your cat to the front door of your office.

Yeah, and then I would call every news organization in a 500 mile radius and get the press it deserves. That would just be free advertising.

SineSwiper:Weaver95: I've always kinda assumed that every traffic court is more or less equally corrupt. if you know someone, you walk. if you're 'little people' you pay through the nose.

The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

NO-FARKING-BODY

actually drives 55 MPH on the expressway. Have an independent agency do speed tests (like the ones you run over, not obvious radar spots that people might think are speed traps), find the 5th percentile (ie: speed that less than 5% drive), and make THAT the speed limit.

If you need the taxes from tickets, then just charge everybody, not the people who are unlucky to "win" the Speed Trap Lottery. You can't possibly believe that something that 100% of the country does is supposed to be illegal.

I do .. but that's only because my car is so fragile going higher my car might vibrate itself into dust.

MugzyBrown:coeyagi: Much bigger than 0.00004% corruption with elected officials. GOP: Yeah, um, why would we fix our meal ticket?

I don't know if there is a single elected republican in Philadelphia

There are a few, mostly from northeast philly, and republicans are guaranteed a couple of seats on city counsel.

Every time one of these philly articles get posted every dumbfark farker makes the same mistake: traffic court does not handle parking tickets. Parking tickets are handled by administrative hearing officers with the parking authority. Moving violations and licence violations are handled by traffic court. Parking hearing officers are employed by the parking authority. Traffic court judges are elected. Traffic court judges, moreover, do not handle criminal violations--if you are arrested for drunk driving the criminal case will go to municipal court and then to the court of common pleas.

The parking authority, by the way, is not a city agency. It was taken over by the state a decade or so ago, and hiring is determined by the majority in the state legislature and the governor. The takeover was engineered by the Republican state leadership and has operated since the takeover as a very substantial republican patronage clearinghouse. It handles not just parking tickets, but also operates garages, handles all taxicab enforcement and transferring of medallions (using a set of regulations so byzantine that the guy that wrote them cant figure out what they say) and manages millions of dollars a year that are supposed to go to the city but instead are funneled into GOP operated endeavors.

Traffic court, on the other hand, is the democrat operated patronage hellhole.

Do not for a second believe that corruption in philadelphia is party based. Republicans ran philly for nearly a century and were as corrupt a group as could be imagined. Philadelphia city hall is one of the largest stone buildings in the world in large part becauae its construction was used to siphon money to GOP affilliated quarry owners for decades, for one example. Democratic reformers finally won and quickly the corrupt machinery switched parties and became a demcratic machine, particularly under frank rizzo.

Philly really has a white democratic machine and a black democratic machine that were at each other's throats while john street was mayor. The GOP almost won with a party switcher that campaigned as a reformer but below the surface was propped up by what remained of the old rizzo associated white machine. When street was elected and then reelected the white machine collectively decided that it was too late to play the racial angle back into power even with a gop sock puppet candidate.

You break the law repeatedly on your every commute to and from work, sunshine, I promise you.

The very fact that the body of laws has proliferated to the point that we're all offenders and the police get to selectively enforce them at a whim is at the very core of corroding the respect for the law. Why bother trying since it's guaranteed they'll find something to screw you with if they really want?

Actually, creating laws that everyone more or less has to violate so that you can selectively enforce them is something that is essentially against international law. It's the kind of thing that can get your nation branded a corrupt authoritarian or totalitarian state and screw up your trade agreements and so on, albeit usually not when it's over things as petty as speeding.

A number of states have additionally made setting speed limits arbitrarily low or changing them abruptly outright illegal, apparently PA isn't one of them but it's in the minority nowadays. And actual selective enforcement of the type described is outright illegal everywhere, even if you set up a system that's arbitrary and essentially a fee lottery, you're not allowed to randomly excuse your buddies when they pull the short straw.

SineSwiper:Weaver95: I've always kinda assumed that every traffic court is more or less equally corrupt. if you know someone, you walk. if you're 'little people' you pay through the nose.

The root problem is the abysmally low speed limits in this country. Nobody, and I mean

NO-FARKING-BODY

actually drives 55 MPH on the expressway. Have an independent agency do speed tests (like the ones you run over, not obvious radar spots that people might think are speed traps), find the 5th percentile (ie: speed that less than 5% drive), and make THAT the speed limit.

If you need the taxes from tickets, then just charge everybody, not the people who are unlucky to "win" the Speed Trap Lottery. You can't possibly believe that something that 100% of the country does is supposed to be illegal.

One important point: unless you're on one of three or four high-speed roads in Philly, there's no farking way you're doing 55 mph without being guilty of reckless driving. It's an urban area, and in 2/3 of the city, there's a stop sign or stop light about every hundred yards. The speed limit on city streets is 35 mph here, and it's generally hard to hit that when you're constantly stopping.

wozzeck:There are a few, mostly from northeast philly, and republicans are guaranteed a couple of seats on city counsel.

I have no idea if any of what you just wrote is accurate, and I don't care, because it's a great read either way. I wish there were more posts like this on the Politics tab, where people with some knowledge of local politics (or the willingness to fake it) explain what's going on to the rest of us.

You break the law repeatedly on your every commute to and from work, sunshine, I promise you.

The very fact that the body of laws has proliferated to the point that we're all offenders and the police get to selectively enforce them at a whim is at the very core of corroding the respect for the law. Why bother trying since it's guaranteed they'll find something to screw you with if they really want?

I don't drive the wrong way down a one way street. Sure I may speed, but so does everyone else. (Not making excuses) We're all going over 55 on a main arterial so the cops only pull over those who exceed that. Unless you're in a strange city you've never been to before/rarely been to, I don't see how you could end up going the wrong way down a one way street.

You break the law repeatedly on your every commute to and from work, sunshine, I promise you.

The very fact that the body of laws has proliferated to the point that we're all offenders and the police get to selectively enforce them at a whim is at the very core of corroding the respect for the law. Why bother trying since it's guaranteed they'll find something to screw you with if they really want?

I don't drive the wrong way down a one way street. Sure I may speed, but so does everyone else. (Not making excuses) We're all going over 55 on a main arterial so the cops only pull over those who exceed that. Unless you're in a strange city you've never been to before/rarely been to, I don't see how you could end up going the wrong way down a one way street.

Lousy sign placement. No sign placement. They have a vested interest in making it easy to write you revenue generation I mean traffic tickets.

Smeggy Smurf:Lousy sign placement. No sign placement. They have a vested interest in making it easy to write you revenue generation I mean traffic tickets.

If cops ticketed for a tenth of the moving violations that happen in this city, we wouldn't have to worry about revenue ever again. But unless you happen to be black or brown or piss a cop off, it's almost impossible to get stopped in Philly.

/seen people run red lights in front of a PPD partol car and the cop does nothing,